BATON ROUGE – Baton Rouge and New Orleans business community leaders have been working to secure a nonstop British Airways flight to service New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong International Airport and London’s Heathrow Airport, but there has been a delay.
According to Stephanie Riegel with the Baton Rouge Business Report the city of San Jose, CA, was able to secure British Airways’ newest international route, but that talks with the international airline are still ongoing for a New Orleans connection.
Riegel reports GNO Inc. President Michael Hecht said, “We were disappointed because we would have liked to have had that flight as early as 2016. But we are still very much in the running for a future flight and we continue to be in regular contact with BA.”
Riegel reports Baton Rouge business leaders working through the Super Region committee have been playing an important role in helping New Orleans try to attract additional flights.
Transoceanic Development CEO Gregory Rusovich, who is chairman of the Louisiana Board of International Commerce and has been active in the negotiations with British Airways, told Riegel, “It’s a top civic and business priority here in New Orleans and the Baton Rouge business community is working with us and we will continue to push. New Orleans and Baton Rouge together are a force, and when you throw in the entire Gulf Coast region we’re really a formidable force.”
Riegel reports San Jose, a Silicon Valley city, was determined by British Airways to be a more attractive market than the combined cities of New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Hecht told Riegel, “If you’re looking at the markets, they felt the business market there was more developed today, while the business market in southeast Louisiana is developing.”
Riegel reports local leaders believe an international deal could still be inked with British Airways, but not until 2017 or 2018, and that limited air service in southeast Louisiana is an economic development issue since big companies are attracted to cities with premium air service choices.
